Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Book Review: 'Encounters: My Life with Nixon, Marcuse, and Other Friends and Teachers' by Paul Gottfried

Encounters: My Life with Nixon, Marcuse, and Other Friends and TeachersPaul E. GottfriedISI Books, 2009

Review byJoseph Ford Cotto

It's no secret that the
American conservative movement is bereft of ideas.

One need only watch a
weekday evening cable "news" program or listen to any number of talk
radio shows to discover how bad the situation is. How often do we hear about
reproductive rights, school vouchers, free markets, and something to do with one
Obama Administration mishap or another?

Meanwhile, does America's
trade deficit, interventionist foreign policy, or the impact of multiculturalism
ever get mentioned?

While the organized left
constantly attaches itself to new issues and creates constituencies out of all
but thin air, Conservatism, Inc. stands by without a clue.

One man's tragically
obscure life story explains how and why American conservatism arrived at its
present low. Chances are that you have not heard about Dr. Paul Gottfried.
Until recently, he was a humanities professor at Lancaster, Pennsylvania's
Elizabethtown College. Long before he began teaching there, though, Gottfried
was a guiding light in the rightist intelligentsia.

Then something happened.

Exactly what, and far more,
is explained in his 2009 book, Encounters: My Life with Nixon, Marcuse,
and Other Friends and Teachers. Few academics can reminisce about being
taught by one of the most legendary leftist voices, conversing with a former president
about Benjamin Disraeli, and fighting to preserve the status quo of a national
political movement.

None of this takes into
account Gottfried's family story; one which begins on the cobbled streets of
Central Europe and finds its way to the rolling fields of Amish country. It is
an American tale to its very core, one in which a band of immigrants rise to
political and academic power in less than two generations.

One is hardly told about
Herbert Marcuse beyond his rabble-rousing with black nationalists at Berkeley.
In Encounters, a far more human side of the arch-controversial intellectual is
shared; memories of a time before external circumstances possibly prompted
Marcuse to toe a dangerously radical line.

On the other side of the
political spectrum, Pat Buchanan is portrayed as an earnest devotee of hardline
Roman Catholicism and concerned advocate for increasingly unpopular societal
values. He is what William F. Buckley might have been had neoconservatism not
flooded the pages of National Review.

The subject of
neoconservatism has played an ever-dominant role in Gottfried's professional
life; much like the storm cloud which follows a jogger around on an otherwise
sunny afternoon.

There is no holding back
his opinions about the flavor of today's American right. Insofar as Gottfried
is concerned, neocon ideology is repackaged lefty dogma. Considering this
school of thought's emphasis on open borders, foreign interventionism, an
expansionist social welfare state, and at times open support of multiculturalism,
one can understand why this is.

Some might be surprised at
how vicious political thinkers can be toward one another. Gottfried learned
this all too well, and the outcome of his hard-knock schooling explains why the
conservative establishment treats him as a perennial persona non grata.

Beyond personal disputes,
Encounters is a fascinating read about American history. President Nixon's
letters to Gottfried not only evidence their mutual admiration, but how a
never-ceasing war of ideas has shaped the mainstream center-right. The story of
how Gottfried's father came to the United States shortly before Nazism invaded
his homeland illustrates the necessity of our nation's fabled dream — and what
it means to productive immigrants.

Gottfried's professional
woes serve as a grim reminder that factuality and intelligence do not win out
by default. His exchanges with the movers and shakers of modern American
history more than make up for being less than a star among academics, though.
He has said that his popularity in Europe far exceeds what is granted him in
the United States.

While this is good for
Gottfried, it indicates something far less than beneficial for American
conservatism.

So, the next time you are
wondering why Democrats consistently snatch victory from the jaws of defeat,
how Republican branding can be so out of tune with what GOP voters want, and
whether the infighting among "conservative" leaders will ever yield
to something more productive, pick up a copy of Encounters.